


Kaylee

by heartsdesire456



Series: Puppies of SHIELD [4]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Animal Attack, Doggy PTSD, M/M, Minor Injuries, Not as serious as it sounds, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-01-16
Packaged: 2018-03-07 18:38:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3178913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartsdesire456/pseuds/heartsdesire456
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Since they had moved in, Mack had started letting Bruno and Chester chill around the garage while he and his employees worked. The entrance to the apartment was a staircase in the back corner of the garage, so it was no big deal to just leave the apartment door open so they could come and go as they pleased. Fitz still came home to take the dogs for a walk during his lunch break, but they seemed to get plenty of social interactions at least by following the guys around the garage. </p>
<p>They also had a playmate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kaylee

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this took so long. I've had killer writer's block...
> 
> And by writer's block, I mean obsession with an actor that started just days ago because my wifey made me watch [Soldier's Girl](https://chelsealovesmovies.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/soldiers-girl-2003/) and I'd obviously seen Lee Pace act before, but I didn't really GET her obsession until I saw that movie and HOLY TALENT BATMAN! Now I know why I was so hung up on Thranduil in Battle of the Five Armies. It was Lee Pace drawing me in before I knew how obsessed I would become.

Living with Mack was incredible. There was nothing like waking up with Mack’s arm around his waist and Chester curled up with his nose pressed against Fitz’s chest while Bruno slept curled up beside Fitz’s legs. It was so nice to wake up warm and surrounded by those that loved him most. 

(For the most part; Bruno was still warming up to him even all this time later.)

Mack tended to actually get out of bed earlier than Fitz did most days to go for a run, so Fitz could laze around while Mack took Chester running with him. Fitz usually eventually got out of bed and took a shower before filling Bruno and Chester’s bowls and starting coffee for him and Mack. Bruno would eat and then go scratch at the door until Mack returning with Chester opened the door and let Bruno take off down the stairs to go run around in the garage and greet the other employees for the day.

Since they had moved in, Mack had started letting Bruno and Chester chill around the garage while he and his employees worked. The entrance to the apartment was a staircase in the back corner of the garage, so it was no big deal to just leave the apartment door open so they could come and go as they pleased. Fitz still came home to take the dogs for a walk during his lunch break, but they seemed to get plenty of social interactions at least by following the guys around the garage. 

They also had a playmate. 

One of Mack’s employees, who went by the nickname ‘Bucky’, amusingly enough, was a disabled veteran. Fitz had made a bit of a fool of himself when he met Bucky one morning when he went downstairs on a weekend to see if Mack had seen Chester’s lead and, while half-asleep still, he ran into a tall, extremely handsome man with a ponytail and, more interesting to Fitz, a highly advanced prosthetic arm. Fitz had ended up asking a million questions as fast as possible about his arm, even going to far as to touch it without thinking, before he heard Mack call out, “Damn, Turbo, let the man answer something!” and had promptly flushed bright red.

Thankfully, Bucky had been totally cool about Fitz’s reaction, because since then, they’d sort of become friends. And not only that, but Fitz had learned the story of the most fascinating tale of survival ever when he was introduced to Bucky’s dog, Kaylee. 

Bucky had been serving in Afghanistan, assigned with a bomb sniffing dog, a German Shepherd, he’d been paired with in basic training, when, on the way to a site they’d been called in to find, their vehicle hit an IED. Everyone in the truck had been killed apart from Bucky and Kaylee. Bucky had been left with his left arm blown off to the shoulder, alone and without any way to get help, and had quickly passed out from the blood loss. When he came to, however, he was yards away from the exploded truck, lying behind some rocks, and a medic was tending to him. It turned out that Kaylee had managed to drag him away from the vehicle to somewhere he wouldn’t be a sitting duck, and she had then ran along the road until another vehicle that had been heading the same way spotted her and followed her to the crash site and then followed her to where Bucky was lying.

Kaylee had saved his life, but apart from the fact she wasn’t trained to work with other handlers besides Bucky, she’d suffered a few months of pretty serious PTSD while she was in a kennel and Bucky was recovering. When he got discharged, he got to adopt Kaylee, and since she was fine as long as she wasn’t alone for more than two or three hours, Bucky took her to work with him. Mack had worried that she might be aggressive towards Chester and Bruno, since she was a service dog, not a pet, but Bucky had explained that part of her PTSD treatment involved socializing her and teaching her how to have fun instead of work, and while she didn’t run around and play as much as the other two, she didn’t mind Chester and Bruno bothering her.

Fitz’s favorite thing about Kaylee, though, was that, since Bucky’s prosthetic was very advanced (Stark Industries tech, unsurprisingly) he could use both hands and work on cars the same as Mack or his other employee, Bobbi, he’d regularly call out to Kaylee to bring him a tool and she’d trot over, dig it out of the tool box, and bring it to him. She seemed to know which tool was which and never got it wrong. There was an old rear bench seat set up like a couch at the back of the garage, outside the office so that people could sit and wait if they wanted, and more than a few times the first few weeks, Fitz sat on the ‘couch’ and just watched Kaylee helping Bucky work on cars.

The funniest day had been when he spotted Bruno watching Kaylee going to the box and getting a tool and bringing it to Bucky and immediately Bruno walked over to some random part lying on the ground at the back of the garage and tried his best to drag it across the concrete to Mack. Fitz had dug out his phone and took a photo of it to send to Simmons, and she’d replied with the word ‘Aww’ with about forty ‘w’s on it. 

(Chester preferred flopping across Fitz’s lap if he was down in the garage sitting on the couch, so he never saw Chester doing much of anything besides lazing around somewhere in the garage.)

Kaylee’s docile and helpful nature was why, after a few weeks living in the apartment above the garage, Fitz came home one day and the last thing he expected was for, the moment he walked into the garage, to hear Kaylee suddenly start barking. He stopped and looked around the delivery truck that was being worked on that day, only to scream in shock when Kaylee came flying around the corner of the truck, barking loudly and angrily, and tackled him, knocking him backwards hard into a standing tool chest. The impact was enough to knock the breath out of him and when he fell to the floor, Kaylee snarled and jumped on him again.

“KAYLEE!?” Fitz heard Bucky shout her name and he heard the crash of tools being dropped, but his attention was on the large dog standing with her paws on his chest, snarling at his face. He gave a terrified whimper when she barked and her teeth snapped near his face. He heard the rattle of creeper sliding out from under a vehicle, but before he could even shout for help, coming out of his petrified state enough to realize he was about to be mauled, he heard a loud, booming bark he wasn’t accustomed to hearing and barely had time to blink before Chester came running up and growled at Kaylee, heckles raised, looking for the first time Fitz had ever seen _angry_ instead of terrified.

“Chester, STOP!” Fitz wheezed, still trapped under Kaylee’s weight. He knew Chester would get hurt if Kaylee attacked him.

“HEY!” Fitz was flooded when relief when a familiar metal arm wrapped around Kaylee’s neck from behind and she was dragged off of him. “Heel, Kaylee! Heel!” Bucky shouted, pulling her away. She barked angrily still, and Chester growled, making Bucky look up and point at him. “Chester, no!” he said in a firm, commanding tone that reminded Fitz that this man was a trained soldier. 

A familiarly angry yapping was accompanied by the sound of boots against concrete coming towards them. “Hey, hey, hey, what’s going on here?!” Fitz struggled up onto his elbow as he saw Bobbi and Mack coming from the office, Bruno skidding across the floor he was jumping around so agitatedly. “Shit!” Mack cursed, shoving Chester out of the way – something Fitz still thought showed his strength crazy amounts – and knelt down beside Fitz, who pushed himself into a sitting position. “What the hell happened?” Mack asked, putting a hand on Fitz’s side as he looked him over, clearly searching for injuries. 

“I don’t- I don’t know.” Fitz let Mack take his elbow and hand and pull him up, only to hiss when straightening up made his shoulder throb and he cried out in pain some, clutching at his upper arm where he’d slammed into the tool chest. “I just came in and- and she attacked me,” he said, looking to where Bucky had dragged Kaylee over to hook her leash on her and tie it to the bumper of the drunk they’d been fixing. “What’s wrong with her?” he asked.

Bucky came back, shaking his head. “I have no idea.” He looked Fitz over. “You okay? I don’t know what got into her, she’s not like that. You know her, she’s never aggressive.”

Fitz leaned into Mack’s side some, favoring his hurt shoulder. “I know, she’s never did that before.” He looked down as Chester butted his head against Fitz’s middle, whining as he pressed into his space. “I’m okay,” Fitz said in a calm tone, rubbing at Chester’s head. “That was stupid of you. She’d kill you if you attacked her,” he said, leaning down to kiss between Chester’s ears only to cry out when the move made his shoulder grate.

“Turbo, we gotta see about that arm,” Mack said, looking down at him worriedly.

“As if my day wasn’t bad enough al-“ Fitz stopped and groaned. “Oh God, Bucky, I’m so sorry, I bet I know what set her off,” he said, looking up at him with wide, guilty eyes. “There was an accident in the upper laboratories today and we all got called up to try and sort through equipment that could be salvaged. Mr. Stark was building some sort of flash thing – who knows what the hell he builds up there – and it malfunctioned and exploded. I bet I smell like potassium chlorate, and she just reacted the way she was trained to.”

Bucky’s shoulders slumped some and he groaned, rubbing a hand over his face. “Shit.”

“I’m so sorry,” Fitz added again. “I didn’t mean-“

“No, hey, you’re the one that got attacked,” Bucky grumbled. “Hell, I probably should get her home, Mack.”

Mack nodded. “Yeah, it’s cool. I probably need to call it a day anyways. Gotta take Fitz to get his arm x-rayed-“

“Oi, I’m an adult, you know,” Fitz argued. “I can assess the damage before we run off for x-rays-“

“Fitz, you know him,” Bobbi said, giving him a look. “You think Mack’s gonna relax until he knows you’re not hurt bad?”

Fitz gave Mack a flat look and Mack just raised an eyebrow. “Either you come voluntarily to call a doctor, or I’ll carry you all the way to the emergency room,” he said and Fitz groaned dramatically.

“You’d do it, too-“

“Damn right, I don’t like seeing you hurt.” He smiled and caught Fitz’s un-injured hand. “Come on, let’s get you upstairs and let Bobbi get the dogs,” he said, arm around Fitz’s waist as he started to lead him around the cars to the stairs. 

~

After a diagnosis of a separated shoulder and an order to sit around with his arm in a sling for a few days, Fitz spent most of the first day in bed, but the second day he went downstairs and set up on the backseat couch with Chester laying across his legs and a tablet to do some work at home. 

When he saw Kaylee lurking in the office doorway, looking his way then ducking back inside, he smiled sadly. It wasn’t her fault. She had been trained to be a soldier as much as any man was and she had PTSD just as much as any soldier who had been in her situation would. He’d come home smelling like the same explosive used in IEDs, probably including the one that nearly killed Bucky, so it wasn’t her fault she’d reacted badly.

After half an hour of Kaylee hiding whenever she realized he saw her, Fitz sighed and nudged Chester off his legs. He got up and walked to the office where Kaylee was hiding out under the desk. He sat in the ancient, wooden wheely chair and leaned down to look under there at her. “C’mon, Sweetheart,” he said gently, reaching down to pet her gently. She cautiously came out and stood in front of him and he smiled sadly at how guilty she looked. It was amazing how much dogs acted like kids sometimes, in Fitz’s opinion. “Look, you,” he said, petting her slowly. “It’s alright. You can’t help it. I’m not mad,” he said, rubbing at her head. “C’mon, you can go back to helping Bucky. I’m not mad at you.” He was pretty sure she had no idea what he was really saying, but between his tone and him saying ‘Bucky’ she seemed to understand because she gave a soft whine and leaned into his hand then turned away and trotted out, heading over to where Bucky was working to settle beside her owner like always. 

When Fitz got up and walked back out to the couch, he smiled when he saw his spot had been filled by Mack, who was looking at his tablet while Chester sat beside him, chin resting on Mack’s upper arm to look at the lights on the tablet curiously. “Budge up,” Fitz said as he came over, nudging Chester away so that he could sprawl across Mack’s lap, grinning when Mack simply changed hands with the tablet so he could wrap his arm around Fitz’s middle and hold him. Fitz laid his head against Mack’s shoulder and snuggled into his warmth, careful of his sling. “What’re you looking at?”

“At you doing work even though you said you were gonna take it easy,” Mack accused lightly and Fitz just gave him his most innocent look.

“I’m only working on the tablet. I’m not even trying to use my left hand.”

Mack rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah.” He put the tablet aside and curled both arms around Fitz, hugging him even though he sat sideways on his lap. He was gently with his touches as he carefully brushed his fingers along Fitz’s hurt hand. “Take your pills?” he asked and Fitz looked up at him, raising an eyebrow.

“Unlike certain manly-men, I’m not at all ashamed to admit when it hurts. You don’t have to ever doubt I took my pain medication, Mack,” he said and Mack chuckled, but nodded, leaning in to brush a kiss to Fitz’s lips. 

“I just worry, Fitz,” he said, leaning their foreheads together. “I hate you being hurt. It makes me feel so useless. I can’t make it better.”

Fitz smiled bashfully, cheeks going slightly pink. “I want so badly to say something ridiculously sappy right now,” he confessed. “But I think I’ll just kiss you until the urge passes.”

Mack gave him a little smirk and shrugged. “I’m okay with this,” he said, leaning in to kiss him sweetly. Fitz hummed against his lips, keeping him from pulling away. 

Mack didn’t get back to work until Bobbi came by and threw a rag at them and threatened to quit if she had to watch them make out any longer.

**Author's Note:**

> More to come!


End file.
